Greek Orthodox Patriarch of the Holy Land Theophilos III, second right, stands outside the closed doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, traditionally believed by many Christians to be the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ, in Jerusalem, Feb. 25. The leaders of the major Christian sects in Jerusalem closed the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for several hours on Sunday to protest an Israeli plan to tax their properties. (AP photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Editor's Note: This story was updated Feb. 27 from its original version.

JERUSALEM — It seems you can fight city hall.

The Jerusalem municipality said Tuesday it would suspend its taxation of certain church properties following protests by Holy Land church officials that included the temporary closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The Israeli government also announced that it had frozen a proposed bill. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat have agreed to establish a professional team led by Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, with the participation of all relevant parties, to formulate a solution for the issue of municipal taxes on properties owned by churches that are not houses of worship,” the statement said.

“The team will negotiate with the representatives of the churches to resolve the issue,” it said, adding that, “as a result, the Jerusalem Municipality is suspending the collection actions it has taken in recent weeks.”

“Israel is proud to be the only country in the Middle East where Christians and believers of all faiths have full freedom of religion and worship,” the statement said. “Israel is home to a flourishing Christian community and welcomes its Christian friends from all over the world.”

Church leaders in the Holy Land, in an unprecedented move, closed the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the holiest site in Christendom, on Sunday to protest both the recent taxation of church properties and a proposed parliamentary bill that would permit the Israeli government to appropriate land that various churches have sold to anonymous buyers. It reopened Tuesday.

According to The Associated Press, the leaders of the Catholic, Greek Orthodox and the Armenian Apostolic Churches in the Holy Land called the moves an attempt to “weaken the Christian presence in Jerusalem.”

In a statement, Cardinal Edwin O’Brien, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, said the closing of the church — the location of Jesus’ tomb, according to Tradition — was “a rare and desperate initiative to keep Christian life alive in the Holy Land.”

Earlier this month, the Jerusalem municipality sent out tax bills to church-owned and United Nations-owned properties that, the city claims, do not provide religious services.

Since the 16th century, successive governments (Ottoman, British, Jordanian and Israeli) have exempted the churches from having to pay property tax, an accommodation that has saved the churches millions of dollars.

In a Feb. 15 joint statement, the heads and patriarchs of several churches noted that civil authorities dating back to the Ottoman period “have always recognized and respected the great contribution of the Christian Churches, which invest billions in building schools, hospitals and homes, many for the elderly and disadvantaged, in the Holy Land.”

The leaders called on the municipality to “ensure that the status quo, which was sanctioned by the sacred history, is maintained and the character of the Holy City of Jerusalem is not violated.”

The city’s unprecedented tax initiative “both undermines the sacred character of Jerusalem and jeopardizes the church’s ability to conduct its ministry in this land on behalf of its communities and the worldwide church,” the leaders said. “We stand firm and united in our position to defend our presence and properties.”

Mayor Wants Money

The government ultimately hopes to collect about $188 million from 887 properties.

The move reportedly follows consultations with Gabriel Hallevy, an Israeli specialist in international law, who believes the tax exemption the Israeli government has long granted should not apply to properties like church-owned hotels, halls and shops that have no overtly religious purpose.

Mayor Nir Barkat told reporters that the exemption has cost the city $285 million.

“It is absurd for Jerusalem residents to fund municipal services for the churches and the U.N. on their own and for the municipality to be prevented from collecting enormous sums that could significantly improve the city’s development and services,” said the Jerusalem municipality.

“If the state wishes the current situation to continue, we demand that it fully compensate us for those sums,” Barkat said.

The mayor’s decision to tax the churches comes at a time of growing tensions between the municipality and the national government over the city’s budget. Barkat claims that the finance ministry has not paid the special grant the government provides to Jerusalem every year because it is both the capital and the holy city and has a relatively poor population.

The ministry claims it has contributed more money to the city than ever before.

Land Sales Questioned

Arab and Jewish residents of Jerusalem were already questioning whether the churches should enjoy so much fiscal and legal independence following revelations that the cash-strapped Greek Orthodox Church — believed to be the second-largest land owner in Israel — has sold many tracts of land it had leased to the Israel government for 99 years to private investors without the knowledge of those living on the land.

Apartment owners reportedly could either find themselves evicted when the church’s leases, transferred to the new landlords, expire in 10, 20 or 30 years, or be forced to pay a substantial sum of money to renew their leases.

Furthermore, Arab residents of the Old City of Jerusalem are livid at the Church for selling land in Arab sections of the city to Jewish Israeli developers, because it could undermine the creation of a future Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Rabbi David Rosen, the director of the American Jewish Committee’s Department of Interreligious Affairs, said the mayor may have the legal authority to demand an end to the exemption because it has never been codified in Israeli law.

The existing exemptions “are an act of magnanimity” by the Israeli government that recognizes “the special place of the churches in Jerusalem and the Holy Land,” Rosen said. “Israel has been under no legal obligation to do so, and before them the Jordanians and the British.”

Holy See Negotiations

Israel’s current negotiations with the Holy See are designed to codify these exemptions.

According to observers with knowledge of these negotiations, Israel has been dragging its feet due to fears that once it provides the Catholic Church with a sweeping tax exemption, other churches — and Jewish and Muslim religious leaders — will demand the same exemptions for their institutions.

Although synagogues and mosques, like Christian churches, do not have to pay property taxes, many other institutions built on land owned by religious authorities are not tax-exempt.

Farid Jubran, the general counsel for the Custody of the Holy Land, which maintains and oversees all properties owned by the Catholic Church here, said the Church was shocked to receive the municipal tax bill.

“The measures are against properties that are also used for religious purposes,” Jubran said, “for example, the Sisters of St. Joseph Hospital. Within the hospital, there is a convent for the nuns, as well as a church. The same is true of Notre Dame [of Jerusalem Center],” a pilgrim hotel that also has a large and active church and offices for Church officials.

Jubran called the demand for taxes “a change in the religious status quo,” and a very rude one at that.

“The way it was done … just a month or two ago, the mayor was visiting the churches to deliver Christmas greetings, and he didn’t mention anything. Instead of communicating with us, he went straight to the press. And he described the churches in an ugly manner, as tax evaders.”

Even worse, Jubran said, is the fact that the municipality is seeking back taxes: “It is one thing to say this is the policy going forward. It is another thing to demand taxes going back seven years.”

No, here in the United States, churches do not have this burden. The National Shrine in Washington DC has a cafeteria, gift shop, and retreat house. All are tax exempt. This is another example of Israel, emboldened by Trump, oppressing the Christians of the Holy Land.

Posted by lyle on Wednesday, Feb, 28, 2018 10:36 AM (EDT):

Uh no Donald, if that is so, then it is between the Jewish and God, the USA should have absolutely nothing to with Israel. Yet, the USA has supported the murder of Christians and Islamic in forming Israel as it is today. The people were forced to flee from what is Israel today, with a continuation of forced taking of land, forcing people to flee. As the people, Christians and Islamic fled from Israel to Syria. The same people who fled from Israel formation now flee from Syria today from the corruption and military murder of the people of Syria by puppet leader Bashar Hafez al-Assad.
Which recognizes the USA over throw of Syria and Iran government by the USA CIA/Military around 1950 in corrupt actions which is the main catalyst to the unrest of the Middle East today in placing corrupt leaders as Bashar Hafez al-Assad in power over the people who murder the people to hold power.

The USA military actions to murder, starve to death twenty million humans in Yemen today cannot be ignored by USA Catholic leaders, an atrocity multiple times worse than Germany ever committed.

Posted by Donald Link on Tuesday, Feb, 27, 2018 10:42 PM (EDT):

A clarification: In this country churches pay taxes on ALL commercial activities. At one time, the NY diocese owned a piece of Madison Square Garden and, yes, they paid the taxes. Why should Israel not do the same? Do I detect a bit of anti-Semitism in some the protesting arguments?

Posted by Kurt on Tuesday, Feb, 27, 2018 8:56 PM (EDT):

The update is good news. While Trump has emboldened Israel to take action against Christians, when Christians and other people of good will are willing to confront the Israeli regime, we can beat them and their friend in the WH.

Posted by Donald Link on Tuesday, Feb, 27, 2018 6:23 PM (EDT):

Lyle: Israel was recovered in 1947 after it was lost by murderous conquest in 638 AD by Muslims. The Jews were simply taking back what was theirs, same as France at Tours and Spain in Granada.

Posted by EileenG on Tuesday, Feb, 27, 2018 5:44 PM (EDT):

This alarming development makes me reconsider the wisdom of Trump’s move to recognize Jerulsalem as the capital of Israel. Is Jared Kushner behind this obnoxious money grab by the city’s mayor, or was he inspired by the bold move by Trump. We need to fight the expropriation by Israel - Jerusalem is the Holy Land for Christians, not just a tax map line item.

Posted by Theodore Seeber on Tuesday, Feb, 27, 2018 10:29 AM (EDT):

Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. This is a ridiculous reason to close the church.

Posted by lyle on Tuesday, Feb, 27, 2018 9:21 AM (EDT):

No reason ever existed for the establishment of a Country as Israel is today. Israel was established in 1949 by military force, murdering those that failed to give up their land. During the same time frame the USA by coup de ta took away the peoples governments of Syria and Iran. In taking away the peoples governments of Iran and Syria the USA established corrupt leaders as the Shah (king) of Iran over the people who came to be the most murderous and torturous leader in the 1970 of the people of Iran itself.
Israel as the one of the richest countries receives the MOST US dollar aid of any nation the last decades, with additional forty billion over the next decade, four billion a year.
Mexico as a Catholic country received not a billion in aid last year, but near 200 million for the year. Christians fled Israel to Syria, and the same people now flee from Syria today due to evil corrupt government leadership.

Posted by Kurt on Monday, Feb, 26, 2018 6:56 PM (EDT):

First President Trump defies Catholic teaching and says that Jerusalem belongs only to one nation and one religion. Now Israel oppresses the Christians of the Holy Land as we see here. And all while Trump allows American taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions in Israel. Please pray for the suffering Christians of the Holy Land under their Israeli oppressors.

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